


Seriously

by Zip001



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Gen, election
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 22:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9518699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zip001/pseuds/Zip001
Summary: After the election, a poly sci teacher wants to make sure that his least favorite student learned her lesson.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly for Stannis fans, I want to apologize but he is St-anus in this ficlet. He is OOC and serves as a foil to Sansa. I imagine him as a kid campaigning to be school president and his older brother who entered as a lark at the last minute handily defeating him, crushing his spirits. Now he is a poly sci teacher at a prestigious private school with a huge chip on his shoulder. He despises his students.

"It was not what I expected to happen."

At first, he did not think she heard. Her back was towards him, and there was no indication that she heard, no stiffening of her back, no change in her steady breathing. Just silence.

He thought to walk away from the almost empty auditorium which only moments ago were filled with chanting students. Perhaps, just perhaps, this was all a dream or a nightmare even. But before he could decided whether to try again or flee, she spoke.

"No?" she quietly asked, "You know, I did want another candidate or two... I didn't think it was right if I won the election because I was the only candidate, that it was important that there be a choice."

He could hear the air quotes around the word won. Objectively, he knew that she was defeated. The students spoke, and they (and he if he were to be honest) did not like her (frankly, he was not alone in his dislike of her - the other teachers did not appreciate her "better than thou" attitude especially after they heard that she told the home ec teacher, Mr. Walder Frey, the bag of hot air, that those who cannot do, teach).

"It is just thought that I thought it would not be merely a popularity contest. Seriously, of course, it was a popularity contest, but I thought that they would never elect a misogynistic homophobic racist idiot with the most inane campaign promises. Make lunch hour be more than an hour. Free candy, free soda. No school on Fridays. Build a wall surrounding senior's quad so no Undesirables, no freshmen, no sophs nor juniors could get in. What a joke! But the joke is on me!"

Her red locks shaking, she laughed almost hysterically. And he thought she would cry. He was not a cruel man he told himself - he did not want her to cry but she needed to be taught a lesson, a hard lesson he himself learned.

"You could have tried harder, tried to reach out to the masses." He was not sure why he still tried to get through to her.

She turned around and looked at him with hard eyes.

"You mean, I could have tried to be likable, not be such an ice queen, such a bitch, miss know-it-all. The likability factor, you taught us about that... Yeah, I could have told jokes, like the ones Joffrey told about the [air quote] the Undesirables [air quote] - the ones who get bused here from the inner city, the geeks, the freaks, the theater kids. I could have boasted about grabbing some guy's dick like the way he boasted about his so-called conquests. They all laughed, even those he belittled, thinking it was all just a joke, that he did not mean it. But you know as well as I do, he meant every single word."

There was something not quite right with his nephew. The boy had a poster of Hitler in his bedroom and creepily a collection of crossbows. Joffrey liked to talk about the Higher Order, those with the right bloodlines, and Stannis could not help but think Joffrey's spouting about pure blood being ironic as there were rumors that the boy was the product of incest, the child of his mother and her twin. He shuddered.

"I want you to look at yourself in the mirror, take a hard look. This is on you, remember that."

Although her words were quietly spoken, they cut him deep.

She made a move to leave but before she passed him, he had to ask what she would do next. It would not surprise him if she demanded a recount as there were undoubtedly vote counting irregularities. Her tying vote was in his pocket. In a run-off, perhaps she would prevail.

"I am not going away, not going to hide. I will continue on... I have to serve -"

He cut her off.

"So you plan to be President of this nation and get back at men like me, boys like Joffrey and all those who voted against you?"

"No, that would be what Joffrey would do, what weak men would do, get angry and get even. What I want, what I always want, is to make things better, run more efficiently, to improve everyone's lives, not just the select few. I do not want to divide, instead I want to unify. We can be much more than the sum of our parts, more than ourselves. That is what I want."

Her voice grew stronger as she spoke. Those words were not empty promises but words of conviction. He wanted that too. He looked down, ashamed at himself.

"And world peace. Seriously."

He looked up, and she flipped him with both hands before she flounced away.

**Author's Note:**

> i am a woman. i am a refugee. i am a minority. i am a us citizen. i am all of these things and more. we can be more, better....
> 
> Inspired by Sarah Bareillis' "Seriously" (and the movies "Election" of course and "Miss Congeniality").
> 
>  
> 
> [Seriously](http://youtu.be/hI8TCA3fJcs)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 'Let's start with hope  
> I threw it in the middle like a skipping stone  
> The ripples won, son of a gun  
> Some would not have thought so  
> But I stand here Commander in Chief  
> And I take that seriously
> 
> But along the way  
> A rogue ripple turned tidal wave  
> In reaction to what I tried to do  
> A rebirth of a nation's hatred  
> Red, white, and blue  
> Is black in there too?  
> Seriously?
> 
> One man  
> Rewriting the book on bad behavior  
> Maybe cheats the neighbors  
> Feels he gets what they pay for  
> We can't  
> Pat him on the back and send him on through  
> No man's ignorance will ever be his virtue  
> Is this the best we can be?  
> Seriously?
> 
> Let's talk of fear  
> And why I don't bring it in here  
> It's a dangerous word, it spooks the herd  
> And we all bleed in the stampede  
> Fear makes a false friend indeed  
> And I take it seriously
> 
> So hear me now  
> Before the truth gets drowned out  
> By a demagogue flexing  
> A demagogue flexing  
> He's history repeating
> 
> Angry?  
> Am I angry?  
> You ask am I angry?  
> And I'm at a loss for words  
> After all we've done  
> Every battle hard won  
> Every hair gone gray  
> In the name of this place  
> In a history plagued  
> With incredible mistakes  
> Still I pledge my allegiance to these  
> United divided States  
> Seriously
> 
> Let's end with "why"?  
> It's a question I  
> Want to ask of us as a populace  
> Why not take our time or the weight of this story  
> Seriously'


End file.
